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Cooling Your Laptop, or Your Lap?

By Eric A. Taub July 20, 2010 7:11 amJuly 20, 2010 7:11 am

A number of companies make cooling pads that are supposed to decrease the heat from laptop computers. You put these pads under a laptop, and, generally, a USB cable connected to it sends power to a fan, which draws heat out of the computer.

Antec’s Basic cooling pad.

The idea is that if you can cool down a laptop computer, it will last longer. In theory, that makes sense; heat destroys electronic components, and laptops are prone to run hot. The only problem is: It’s hard to find any evidence to support the claim.

Antec, which makes computer power supplies and accessories, has recently introduced three new models of its line of laptop cooling pads, which it says will help prolong a laptop’s life. But when I asked the company for the evidence supporting that idea, Veronica Feldmeier, a company spokeswoman, could not cite any. Instead, she sent me a document that just restated the claim — that a cooling device will help prolong a laptop’s battery life.

Belkin, which makes similar, competing products, and makes a similar claim about their utility, did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, Sheila Watson, a spokeswoman for Hewlett Packard, said that “while we don’t deem laptop cooling pads as necessary, some users may like to use them from a comfort perspective.” Colin Smith, an Apple spokesman, directed me to a document available on the company’s Web site, recommending that users put their laptops on flat surfaces, as opposed to pillows or other soft surfaces, like one’s lap.

Kyle Wiens, co-founder of iFixit, a company well-known for its so-called tear downs of Apple products — dismantling the new products to explore their innards — pointed out in an interview that the cooler a laptop runs, the less often its fan moves, thereby prolonging the fan’s life. To replace a fan yourself, Mr. Wiens charges $50 to $75 for parts. Still, while his entire office runs on Apple laptops, no one uses a cooling device, he said.

Ken Colburn, the founder of Data Doctors, a computer repair and data recovery company in Tempe, Ariz., said his company had run “surface heat tests with various products that claimed to cool laptops and found none of them made any real difference.” He tested several Antec models, he said, and found that they lowered the temperature of two different laptops around 5 degrees Fahrenheit. But that doesn’t mean that the laptop will last longer, he said.

“The main reason to buy these devices is for the comfort of the user,” Mr. Colburn said.

Meanwhile, Antec’s new cooling pads are the Mini, for $15; the Basic (simply a stand with holes), for $20; and the Designer, for $25. If you just want to cool your lap, it may be a small price to pay. Or you could always save your money and put your laptop on a table. Either way, the laptop will live its ordinary life, and no more.

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